CSU - PSY 320 - Class Notes - Week 9

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Schools > Colorado State University > Psychology > PSY 320 > CSU - PSY 320 - Class Notes - Week 9

School: Colorado State University

Department: Psychology

Course: Abnormal Psychology

Professor: Martha Amberg

Term: Fall 2016

Tags: PSY320, Psychology, abnormalpsychology, and Amberg

Name: PSY 320 Week 7 Notes

Description: Lecture notes for week 7 Prof Amberg Suicide and Personality disorders

Uploaded: 10/07/2016

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10/3/16
Suicide - Self-inflicted ● Intention to die, not to just hurt themselves - Completed suicide - ended in death - Suicide attempt - the process that may or may not end in death - Suicidal ideation - suicidal thoughts that occur before any attempts are made - Stats ● 34,598 people die by suicide a year in the US ○ 94 a day ● Almost twice as many people die by suicide (34,598) in the US than homicide (18,361) - Demographics ● Rare in children
● Increases in early adolescence (hard time trying to fit in)
● More reported attempts in females ○ Often choose methods that aren’t as lethal (pills, poison, least messy methods) ● More completed suicides in men ○ Chose methods that more often end in death (guns) ● Hispanic females have high rates
● Older males at high risk for suicide (more risk factors - friends dying, economic hardship, debilitating illnesses) ○ Most elderly women have more helpful relationships, so they are at lower risk ○ Older men have less friends/connections to family, so if one of the few connections dies it is more impactful ○ Highest risk is European American men over 85 - Suicide and College ● Over 1,000 students on college campuses (people living in dorms etc.) commit suicide per year ● Suicide 2nd leading cause of death between 25 to 34 and 3rd between 15 to 24
● One in 10 college students has made a plan for suicide - Aspects promoting suicide ● Psychological disorders ○ Depression
○ Bipolar disease/Manic depression ● Stressful life events ○ Violence and sexual abuse
○ Loss of a loved one
○ Economic hardship
○ Physical illness - Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) - significantly injuring oneself without intention to die

● Cry for help
● Something very dangerous that could potentially kill them, but they are not planning on dying - Historical perspectives on suicide ● Durkheim’s theory ○ Egoistic suicide - feels alienated from others
○ Anomic suicide - experience severe disorientation from society
○ Altruistic suicide - believe that taking own life will benefit society in some way (when people have some type of debilitating disease, they may think
that taking their own lives will relieve pressure on other people to take
care of them) ● Social ties and integration into society help prevent suicide - Suicide Contagion ● Suicide cluster - nonrandom group of suicide completions and attempts ○ People who knew someone who died
○ Linked by media exposure - when people feel like they knew someone who died (celebrity suicides) ○ Suicide pact - there was usually someone they knew who committed suicide and then the pact is created ● Suicide contagion - modeling behavior from friend or admired celebrity
Personality disorders - Personality ● Determines how one feels, interacts, and perceives events
● Personality trait - pattern of behavior, thought, and feeling that is stable across time and across many situations ● Personality disorder - fundamental deficits in people in: ○ Who they are - lacking certain characteristics or traits that affect how they view themselves, how others view them ○ Their ability to have relationships - Steps in diagnosing personality disorder ● Level of functioning - sense of self or relationships with others
● Pathological personality traits
● Meet criteria for personality disorder - Core personality traits (everyone falls somewhere on continuum) ● Negative affectivity - ability to be even-tempered and calm, secure, and able to handle stress (want to have negative affectivity) ● Detachment - appropriately outgoing and trusting of others (want to be in the middle) ● Antagonism: ○ Positive - Honesty, appropriate modesty, concern
○ Negative - Deceitfulness, grandiosity, callousness

10/5/16
Cluster A - will not be tested on
Cluster B - Dramatic and Erratic ● Problems with being overly emotional and having unpredictable thinking or behavior Antisocial Personality Disorder - Pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others ● Must be over 15
● Have 3 of the following ○ Failure to conform to society’s rules and regulations
○ Deceitfulness and conning others for personal profit or pleasure
○ Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
○ Irritability or aggressiveness as indicated by repeated fights or assaults
○ Reckless disregard for safety of self or others
○ Consistent irresponsibility
○ Lack of remorse Borderline Personality Disorder - Benchmarks ● Out-of-control emotions
● Hypersensitivity to abandonment
● Tendency to cling too tightly to other people ○ Holding on to people too tightly can push them away ● History of hurting oneself - not suicidal, no intent to kill themselves - Pathological personality traits ○ Unstable self-concept and moods - dependent on others to validate them
○ High antagonism
○ Negative affectivity - Characterized by: ○ Fundamental deficits in identity and in interpersonal relationships
○ Unstable self concept - periods of extreme self-doubt alternating with grandiose self-importance - Theories of Borderline Personality Disorder ○ Cognitive theory ■ Childhood abuse, neglect, and instability contribute to difficulties in regulating emotions and in attaining a positive stable identity
through several mechanisms ○ Psychoanalytic theory ■ People never learned to fully differentiate their view of themselves from their views of others. Makes them extremely reactive to
others’ opinions of them and to the possibility of abandonment ○ Neurobiological theory

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